


Reunions

by writing_shorts_but_failing



Category: Kung Fu Panda - All Media Types
Genre: Did you see the hints about humanity I gave?, Fluff, Gen, Light Angst, and about TiPo, that OBVIOUSLY didn't happen, this was supposed to be completely light hearted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-15
Updated: 2017-09-15
Packaged: 2018-12-30 06:52:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12103140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writing_shorts_but_failing/pseuds/writing_shorts_but_failing
Summary: Morticia knows that Oogway is not long for this world, can sense it like some people can tell it will rain, and decides to bring a special someone to see him while they can.





	Reunions

Oogway was slowly making his way to his favorite peach tree, that he had named Sacred Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom (mostly for a laugh and partly so that no one would harm the tree), after picking the Dragon Warrior. The panda might not be much now, but he was sure that the poor boy could do it. If Oogway was a few decades younger, perhaps a century, he would train the boy instead of Shifu. They were going to drive each other insane.

He had just made it to the peach tree, such a lovely view, and looked up to see a surprise. A black panther wearing lavender sat among the boughs of the tree, lazily eating a peach. Until he had started to travel, so very long ago, he had not realized that her hips were unusual for a feline; wide instead of narrow, and she had longer paws than other animals (almost like a monkeys paw), but she was still beautiful.

“Master Sǐwáng, it has been a long time.” Oogway greeted warmly. He was very, very old now. More wrinkle than smooth skin, he could no longer hold his hands or head steady, sometimes he even forgot where he kept his staff when he wasn’t using it.

“My little tortoise.” Sǐwáng said just as warmly, flicking away the peach pit. She dropped to the ground in a crouch, coming to stand in front of him. She gently cupped his cheeks in her deadly paws. “Oh, you’ve grown so old. It seems like it was just last week that you insisted on going on a journey to find your purpose in life.”

“Ah, but for those of us not immortal it has been at least a thousand years since that event.” Oogway said in his weathered voice, leaning into her warm fur. He vaguely wondered why she was here, but (like him) getting a straight answer out of her was useless. “How is my daughter?”

“Gōngzhǔ is doing well. Another two centuries and she will be wanting to be out on her own just as you did.” She placed a kissed on top of his head, lingering minutely. “She has missed you greatly since your last visit. She named the doll you gave her Měilì, and she even worked very hard to learn the characters so she could make furniture with the doll’s name on them.”

“I remember when I visited and managed to teach her how to make little straw dolls and how to make ink from berries.” One of the few memories he had of her. He couldn’t take care of her after Tiānshǐ had died, and it had been too dangerous for people to know that he had a daughter. He had regretfully left Gōngzhǔ with Sǐwáng, but he knew that his beautiful daughter would be well taken care of.

“Yes, she has always been a fast learner, and quick to go to sleep when fed stewed cabbage and carrots.” She has a wry smile on her face, and her gray eyes tinted with sadness and mischief. “In fact, I brought her here with me, to see you one last time before you go to the Spirit World, I may visit you but she will not be able to.”

“Thank you, Sǐwáng.” Oogway thought, for the barest moment, of introducing Shifu to Gōngzhǔ. A large smile made its way onto his face at the thought. “Would you like anything from the kitchen before we go see my darling daughter?”

“Just a few quick fixes and a tea set. She should be waking up fairly soon.” Oogway leads the way back, holding her by the hand as if she will disappear. “I saw some kind of performance earlier, what was it?”

“I was picking the Dragon Warrior.” He answered simply, a chuckle coming out as well. “He fell from the sky just as I was pointing. Everyone was very surprised, even I was, but I stand by my decision that the panda will be and is the Dragon Warrior.”

“First, you’re the one that started that legend, so you should know who it would be. Second, pandas are all but extinct because a white peacock was told by a soothsayer that a warrior of black and white would stop him if he continued down the path he was on.” Her tone got dryer and more caustic with every word. “No one ever thinks that, maybe, _just maybe_ , I should choose something different. No, it turns everything into self-fulfilling prophecy. I knew these things before I even turned one hundred! And I know you did, because I taught you.”

“Ah, but you have always been able to see the sword that hangs over the throne and the steps that lead to self-sabotage.” Oogway sat down at the kitchen table, watching as Sǐwáng quickly found everything she wanted and started to prepare rice balls, quick dumplings, sweet milk, and a nice variety of fruits and vegetables. “I see she is still fond of sweet milk, should she not have grown out of that by now?”

“Usually, but it’s the only unhealthy thing she likes if one doesn’t count pufferfish.” Oogway blinked at that. Goodness, his child was strange. “Of course I know how to prepare it so it isn’t lethal, but I stop her after too much; which is about five bites. Which makes me wonder if you’ve been getting enough to eat, you’re not the proper size for a tortoise your age.”

“I get plenty to eat, perhaps even more than I should,” he said with a small chuckle. “If I did not still train, I’m not sure that people wouldn’t have to roll me everywhere. Can you imagine that? It sounds rather funny.”

“Yes, I can’t really imagine that the most sought after tortoise in the whole Galapagos being too fat to move on his own.” Sǐwáng said with a small smile. She hefted the (perhaps too full) tray and gestured for him to lead the way. “I left her in the room with peach blossoms painted on the screens.”

“Ah, my room then.” Oogway, for as old as he was, would never understand how she knew these things. He imagined that learning the answer would give him a rather large headache.

“She has something to show you when we get to your room, she was so excited that she nearly kept getting stuck on her back.” Gōngzhǔ had a bad habit of tripping when she got too excited, and Oogway found it adorable even though it was frightening to think of what would happen should she stay on her back for too long. “She made it all by herself.”

“Then I’m sure it will be beautiful.” He had always been of the belief that it was about the thought put into something as opposed to how much it cost.

They reach his room and he uses his staff to slide open door, letting her go in first. He walks into the room to see his daughter tucked into her shell, except for her head that rests on his pillow. The spots on her skin have started to form flower designs (just as her mother’s had, his own had once been smooth geometric designs) and she painted stars on the top part of her shell; a light blue wrap covering the rest of her shell. She looks more and more like her mother each time he sees her.

It only hurts a little now, a slight twinge compared to the ripping it used to be.

“Gōngzhǔ, time to wake up.” She opened her eyes groggily at Sǐwáng’s voice, a beautiful ocean of blue blinking at them. “Your father is here.”

“Baba?” Oogway chuckled warmly at her sleepy voice. Her limbs came out with a cry when she finally focuses on him. “Baba!”

“Hello, xiao Gōngzhǔ,” He let out a small grunt when his daughter collided with him. He held her close, letting go of his staff without a second thought. “You look so beautiful, and you’ve grown so much since I last saw you! Not quite my little hatchling anymore.”

“Baba, I’ll always be your hatchling, even when I’m older than you or Nainai!” He chuckled at her exuberance, and that she had called Sǐwáng grandma (as he always did). “Oh, but, Baba, I made you a gift and Nainai told me that you could take it with you to the Spirit World!”

“If she said it, then it is probably true.” A piece of wisdom that had taken him a century to accept, in a slightly painful way. “I’m most eager to see what you made.”

His daughter lets go and scuttles to a nearby travel pack, carefully pulling out a package wrapped in cloth with a Trumpet Creeper blossom design. She walks back cautiously, holding the gift like it would break if a leaf fluttered near it.

“Here, Baba, just for you.” She hands it to him, he’s slightly surprised by how little it weighs, and he carefully unwraps it. The cloth turns out to be wrapped around a small yin-yang necklace. The pendant has his and Tiānshǐ’s colors, her the yin and he was the yang. It was flawless and the back had the words “Never Alone” stamped into the gleaming metal. The cloth turned out to be a wrap similar to the one he currently wore; light green with a rich brown trim, and the Creeper blossoms were half of another yin-yang, but was circled with intertwined peach branches and Creeper vines, and peach blossoms for the other half with the two dots as the seeds of the plants.

The detail was absolutely astounding. It had been many years since he had seen such a beautiful piece of art.

“You have worked on this most diligently, I can feel the love and hard work you used to make it with. It has been many years since I saw such a sight.” Oogway tells her honestly. The Emperor would have been proud to wear it.

“I’m glad you like it, Baba!” comes the cheerful chirp.

“She’s been working on perfecting her technique for your gift for twenty-three years.” Gōngzhǔ lets out an indignant squawk, blushing deeply. He just chuckles while holding these treasures to his chest. “I’ll leave you two to catch up. And don’t worry, I won’t cause too much damage.”

“That’s very reassuring.” Which it, honestly, isn’t. Sǐwáng just laughs merrily as she saunters out of the room.

 

**.0.0.0.**

  
Morticia, called Sǐwáng for the last fifteen hundred years, wandered the halls of Oogway’s home. Jade coated the walls and completely made up the pillars. It was all very beautiful, and sweet that the villagers had constructed this place for Oogway.

Visiting here made her remember China from when humans lived everywhere. She was the last, but she couldn’t really call herself human anymore. Not a panther either. Just some monstrous mix.

And she still had that damn ‘allure.’

She was brought from her thoughts by finding a new room. It was filled with training equipment and weapons. Obviously a training hall.

Morticia repressed a squeal but still clapped paws excitedly. She looked around for what to try first, perhaps the thing that looked like sea serpents? Or the wooden gators? The jade bowl looked easiest and the pipes confused her. The pipes smelled of soot and fire, perhaps it was some kind of fiery obstacle course? She looked at the rafters and saw bladed hoops and clubs with spikes on one side.  
It was all deeply intriguing. 

A moment later, before she could go to the bowl (that was cutely shaped like a turtle) the door opened to show a tiger, crane, snake, monkey, and a mantis. All of whom immediately took on fighting stances.

“Who are you?” the tiger asked, apparently the leader of the group.

“I am called many things, although Oogway calls me Sǐwáng.” This caused a shiver to go through all but the tiger. It was moments like this that she remembered that her Chinese meant death. “Who might you be?”

“I am Viper.” said the snake after a long pause. Hmm, no fangs. Curious.

This continued, all of them statin what animal they were, almost like they had never had one. Tigress was the most begrudging, very obvious anger issues, while the most amiable was Viper.

“Do you wish for us to call you Sǐwáng, sister?” Viper asked, a very friendly person by nature. Morticia quite liked the young snake.

“You can if you wish. I only told Oogway to call me that because I knew he would one day come to this land. Although I prefer my name from the land to the east.” She had fond memories of Japan, ones that were literally ancient history. “Kuroshi is what they called me when they found out the meaning of my original name. They tried calling me Kuroshitsuji and I drop kicked the one that suggested it.”

Not that the name hadn’t been fairly apropos because of the job she had been doing at the time, but she could still (very) vaguely remember the manga by that name.

Of course she was only suggesting her Japanese name because it would be easier for them to say. She could very clearly recall how many humans and animals had bungled up her name, much less the spelling of it.

“Would you mind if I called you that?” Viper inquired.

“It is fine,” Morticia turned her attention back to the training equipment. “Would you tell me how these work? I haven’t been in an actual training hall in decades.”

They told her what everything was for, and showed her their specialties. It had been so long since she had seen anyone even remotely capable of what she had always been able to do (after figuring out what she was capable of and some of practice, of course, no one was an expert the moment they tried something).

“Shouldn’t you use the other courses often? Complacency has been the downfall of many.” It had been humanity’s downfall as well. “I’ve seen plenty of it.”

They all shared a look of surprise but looked at the other courses with calculation.

“I’ll spar with whoever chooses the turtle bowl.” Morticia added as she meandered to said turtle bowl. She heard a small scuffle before Tigress was walking next to her. She gave a small chuckle and lightly jumped onto the rim of the bowl, Tigress followed.

The spar was magnificent (after she figured out how to balance right), quick, brutal with their combined hard hits, and some scratches since both of their claws had accidently popped out after about ten minutes. Morticia was having fun and Tigress was getting out most of her anger, especially if the growls were any indication. Morticia was almost purring in delight.

A sharp snap brought an end to her fun as Tigress was suddenly not there, and the unbalance of it caused her to fall into the bowl. She curled up and used her momentum to roll right out of it and into the air, catching a bladed ring and swinging to the paneled floor. 

“Who are you?” demanded a very irate voice that turned out to be a red panda. She briefly debated messing with him and well, today had been fun so far, so why not?

“You must be one of my son’s students.” Oogway was pretty much her son, five hundred years of raising him had to count for it.

“I don’t know your son and I doubt he would be old enough to teach anyone anything.” She saw the others looking between them with wide eyes. Although the panda, that she would assume was the Dragon Warrior, was deeply confused.

“Oh, you looked like someone Oogway would teach.” The red panda sputtered. She looked at him with fake curiosity. “If my little tortoise didn’t teach you kung fu, then will you tell me who did?”

“He did teach me.” the red panda finally choked out. “My name is Shifu, who are you?”

“Well, Oogway calls me Sǐwáng, but Kuroshi is just as fine.” It was obvious that Shifu thought she was delusional, but then she was saying that she had raised Oogway (whom they knew was at least a thousand years old, if they didn’t actually know his age) and yet she looked no older than twenty seven. She directed the next part to the panda, “Who are you?”

“Oh, um, I’m Po Ping.” Po said with a clumsy bow. Morticia thought he was really cute. But there were some problems.

“You’re too thin for a panda.” Her blunt statement startled the others and got incredulous looks from most of them. She quickly moved and grabbed Po’s paw while he was still shocked. “You have your claws short, for whatever reason, but you should file them if you continue to do so. It's unhealthy to just bite them off.”

“How-” he started but seemed at a loss for the proper words. 

“I’ve met quite a few pandas in my time, although you’ve been the only one in the last fifty years.” Morticia says casually as she pulls out a nail fail and starts to even out his claws. She honestly loves overwhelming people with information and then doing things before they can react, it’s been her basic entertainment since before humanity fell. “Quite the unusual eye color as well, a gorgeous emerald green. Very handsome by panda standards, if a little too underweight.”

She can feel the blush coming from Po through the stunned silence. She moves onto his other hand and keeps bombarding them.

“Some of the best friends I’ve ever had were pandas, but I’ve never had many friends to begin with. Mostly just children that I raise.” She starts to reminisce a little. “I had this one panda cub, only three years old when I found her, said her name was Měilì. Oh, she was a doll, could out eat me in everything but spring rolls, and she was so beautiful and kind to everyone. It was a tragic day when she passed away.”

With her self-imposed task done, she darted away before anyone could say a word.

She found herself in a room made of jade, after making quite a few turns and jumping on a few roofs, with weapons and armor on display and paintings of various battles. It made her think of a museum, only it was more about pride than sharing history.

She wished that there were plaques that told the history of each item, it all looked to interesting, even the one that looked like it didn’t hold anything.

Of course, looks can be deceiving, as she had proven and found out long ago.

Morticia perused the strange place for a few hours before deciding it was time to go check on her precious tortoises. Oogway was missing and Gōngzhǔ was snoozing once again with her head on a pillow and covered by Oogway’s old wrap while clutching her doll.

She was glad that to see the small smile on the tortoises face. She would have to make sure that the father and daughter shared as much time together as possible before Oogway left for the Spirit World.

She would be a go between for them, upon occasion, but that didn’t really compare to in person. 


End file.
